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Quakers enter postseason with momentum

HANOVERTON – As teams are wrapping up their regular season slate, they look for a contest that either tests them for tournament play or renews old rivalries. On Friday night the Salem Quakers gathered momentum for tournament play while also claiming bragging rights over the United Eagles in a dominating 72-47 victory to end the regular season.

“This was very important,” Quakers coach Jeff Andres said. “We’re starting to feel pretty good about ourselves. We have played some pretty good basketball at times, I feel really all year, but we have had moments of lapse where we were careless with the ball and missed shots and so forth. But the past couple of weeks we have been playing pretty good. It definitely feels good getting on a roll going into tournament time.”

“It is definitely a confidence booster,” Quakers senior forward Trey Double said. “We were confident that we could get the W, and roll into the playoffs. We have been playing well lately, the last couple of games.”

The Quakers, who improve to 7-15 on the season, were led by Double as he controlled the boards and scored 10 of his game-high 20 points in the second quarter. He would also grab 12 rebounds to pace the Quakers on the glass. Many of those rebounds resulted in uncontested put-back baskets.

“He’s coming on,” Andres said of Double. “He’s playing his best basketball right now which is huge for us as a senior and a leader. Going into tournament time that is very important to us.”

“I’m more relaxed this part of the season,” Double said. “First part of the season I was expected to do big things and I just wasn’t producing. But now I”m relaxed and I’m just rolling.”

With the Eagles celebrating senior night, the Quakers were able to weather the early momentum to slowly pull out to a 17-9 advantage at the end of the first quarter. When Hunter Griffith knocked down a three to start the second period, the Quakers push ahead 20-9. They doubled up the Eagles at 28-14 with 3:44 remaining in the half and held a 15-point, 39-24 lead at the intermission.

“It’s fun,” Andres said of the large boisterous crowd. “These kids love it. It’s a good atmosphere and I told these guys that you’re going to be hard-pressed to find an atmosphere like this.”

The Quakers would continue to pull away from the Eagles in the second half as they pushed their advantage all the way out to 21-points at 52-31 late in the third stanza. They would close the frame holding that same margin at 54-33.

The Eagles gave the home crowd something to cheer about at the 6:15 mark of the fourth quarter when Parker Hydrick converted a steal into a layup to cut the deficit down to 16-points at 56-40. But the Quakers would keep the Eagles from getting any closer and built their lead out to the 25-point final margin.

“I think athletically, in athleticism we thought we had the edge in that regard. We tried to exploit them in getting the ball to the rim. We have multiple kids who can score. I thought we were deeper than United,” Andres cited as the advantage the Quakers had over the Eagles in the contest.

“There is a lot of different emotions. Add into it senior night, add in that we were playing Salem which is always a battle when we play each other whether it’s in football or basketball. It came down to them keeping their composure and we lost our composure in the first half and got caught up in the moment,” Eagles coach Chris Kadvan said.

“There are a lot of parallels with Salem and Fairless as far as their style of play,” Kadvan said of the Eagles tournament opponent next week. “Fairless is very similar in what they want to do on both offense and on defense.”

The Quakers return to action next Tuesday when they travel to play the fifth-seeded Canfield Cardinals in a Division II first-round tournament game. The Eagles, who drop to 11-11, will host Navarre Fairless in a first-round Division III tournament contest Tuesday night.

SALEM: 17-22-15-18–72

UNITED: 9-15-9-14–47

SALEM SCORING: Hunter Griffith 2-0-6, Josh Young 7-2-17, Luke Weingart 0-0-0, Turner Johnson 2-0-4 , Trey Double 9-2-20, Niko Walter 5-2-14, Josh Lehwald 1-0-2, Cade Campolito 1-0-3, Luke Duncan 1-0-2, Kaleb Caldwell 1-0-2, Caleb Stockman 0-2-2. TEAM TOTALS: 29, 8-16: 72

UNITED SCORING: Parker Hydrick 6-1-13, Ethan Antram 1-4-6, Anthony Dibaggio 0-1-1, Landon Baker 5-4-14, Alex Birtalan 2-3-7, Keaton Baker 1-0-3, Brutus Ogilvie 1-2-5, Nate Miller 0-2-2. TEAM TOTALS: 14, 17-23: 47.

Three-point goals: Salem 6 (Hunter Griffith 2, Josh Young, Niko Walter 2, Cade Campolito), United 2 (Keaton Baker, Brutus Ogilvie)

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